World condemns Ukraine's disputed poll

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Flower power ... riot police - with carnations inserted into their shields by opposition supporters - guard the presidential administration building in Kiev.Photo: AP

Ukraine's Moscow-backed Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovich, at
the centre of a political crisis over the disputed presidential
poll, said he saw no reason for opposition street
demonstrations.

A third day of mass protests began in the frigid capital
yesterday, a day after the opposition presidential candidate,
Viktor Yushchenko, took a symbolic oath of office in
parliament.

Speaking at a government meeting yesterday, Mr Yanukovich, who
appears poised to be declared winner of Sunday's run-off vote,
shrugged off the huge rallies of Yushchenko supporters, saying: "We
[ordinary people] have all we need to be able to live normally.
Nothing extraordinary is taking place."

Ukraine's central electoral commission said yesterday that it
would announce the final results of the disputed presidential poll
later in the day.

On Tuesday, with 99.48 per cent of precincts counted, official
but still not final results gave Mr Yanukovich 49.39 per cent of
the vote against 46.71 per cent for Mr Yushchenko. Exit polls had
put Mr Yushchenko well ahead.

Mr Yushchenko's supporters massed at Independence Square and the
Supreme Rada, Ukraine's 450-seat parliament, their numbers reaching
an estimated 200,000 on Tuesday. That night, they marched to the
presidential administration building, where they were met by lines
of riot police standing 12 deep.

The risk of violent unrest in the former Soviet republic of 48
million people heightened as both sides claimed victory and stepped
up their rhetoric following the vote that Western European
observers said was marked by widespread fraud.

"Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict," Mr Yushchenko
said in parliament on Tuesday. "We have two choices: Either the
answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an
answer." Supporters cheered as he took the oath, which has no legal
status.

In the face of the protests and strong condemnation from the US
and the European Union, the Government appeared to hesitate.
President Leonid Kuchma, who supported Mr Yanukovich, called for
negotiations.

But the opposition said yesterday it would not negotiate. Mykola
Tomenko, a close aide to Mr Yushchenko, told the huge crowd: "I
want to tell you that we will not hold negotiations with Yanukovich
and the people who surround him."

The White House said in a statement: "We strongly support
efforts to review the conduct of the election and urge Ukrainian
authorities not to certify results until investigations of
organised fraud are resolved."

Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister, whose country
holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, telephoned Mr
Kuchma to express the presidency's "serious concerns" about the
election.

The NATO Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, summoned the
Ukrainian ambassador to express the alliance's disappointment with
the way the presidential election was handled, officials said
yesterday. The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, told his
parliament yesterday that the election showed massive fraud.

But Russia, which backed Mr Yanukovich, dismissed foreign
charges of electoral fraud as premature and arrogant.

Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president and leader of the 1989
"Velvet Revolution" that overthrew Communist rule, yesterday urged
Ukrainians to keep up their protests.

"All respected domestic and international organisations agree
that your demands are justified. Therefore I wish you strength,
endurance, courage and fortunate decisions," Mr Havel said in a
statement from Taipei, where he was travelling.

The role of the Communist Party in parliamentary manoeuvring
remains critical. It did not endorse a candidate in the second
round of voting despite pressure from Russia to back Mr Yanukovich.
If it sides with Mr Yushchenko there would be enough votes to
demand a review of the election and the 11,000 violations that the
Yushchenko campaign claims to have collated.